Ringtail

I was out on Saturday riding Indian creek and decided to check out Ringtail as well. I didnt ride all the way to Roxbourgh. I was curious to see if it is better to do this ride starting at roxbough or the indian creek trailhead.

Much better to start at Indian Creek for that long sweet downhill.
However then you have to climb back out.
If you start at Rox you have to hike a bike into the Ringtail.
The connector is hiking only for some reason.

Ringtail

I think the answer is that it "depends".

Personally, I think feel the descent is awesome, but the climb is not really that bad (assuming once doesn't chose to ride it at 3 PM as of late where it would be like a blast furnace down low as you start climbing back up .. which could be a factor in where you elect to begin the ride.

As telebum pointed out if you want to connect back to the dirt road that goes to Roxborough / back up to the IC trail there is a short hike a bike required. Be forewarned that the Roxborough state park rangers are very anti-MTB and have threatened to write tickets if your tires so much as touch a no MTB allowed trail (as in walking your bike). :-( As a result, treating like CX practice and running it with bike on the shoulder is my solution. I do know people are riding the connector as I've seen it first hand, but I sure hope they cease and desist before more drastic measures are taken like a broader trail closure.

I've never ridden the trail by parking at the IC trail head personally as I live in the Roxborough area and tend to either ride in through the neighborhood or via Waterton. I can say that I prefer the climb up through the tree's on Ringtail versus the ugly dirt road climb any day!

Hey Batty
Do you ever get harassed going through the neighborhood?
It is private property open to owners only so I am told.
County road 5 is the maintenance road through the golf course
which supposedly has an easement. Although I have heard that people get
harassed by the golf course management also.
Just curious for future rides from that direction.

Ringtail

Telebum,

No, I have no issues, but then again I live in the park proper. I can say that to my knowledge the Gold course road is private and not accessible by anyone outside of golf course personnel. The only easement / agreement I know of is that an emergency thoroughfare was created a few years back to make it easier for residents to evacuate the park in the event of an emergency via the golf course road. This was an issue when the Hayman fire threatened the area a few years back and also when a ruptured gas main shut down the main road a few years back. So I would expect they have a right to harass you if you use the golf course road.

Just ride the main road through the park, it's longer and has a few rollers but nobody can hassle you for riding it. Even though it's a "gated" community they cannot legally deny access to someone that wants to drive/ride in. I just keep to the right and wave and say "I'm a resident" (which I am in this case) and 99% of the time they just wave and smile. Given I've never seen anyone pedaling out with a nice wide screen TV strapped to their back I tend to think the guards don't bother cyclists much .. other trying to keep a large pack from rolling in a disrupting traffic flow (Spring 10 AM ride from Wadsworth & Deer Creek). Or claim you're house shopping whatever ... they cannot turn you away legally.

Where the road is gated at the rear egress from the park the story is slightly different. The gate is where the road becomes truly private (~2 property owners if I recall correctly) and turns to dirt. Bikes are allowed as long as they stay on the road. My understanding is that the reason the main road through Roxborough cannot be closed to anyone is that they consider this to be the maintenance road. There was a bunch of debate on this some years back and why a formal gate could not be put into place etc ... So stay on the main road and you are golden. I have noticed an increasing number of cars parking at the rear gate and people riding from there and a fair mix of obvious residents (blue sticker) and visitors (no sticker). I wonder if this will be an issue if more and more people start parking there .. not certain.

Ringtail

Which route back out?

The climb back up Ringtail is the same as the descent. ;-) I don't have my cycling computer nearby to double check, but I think it's ~8 miles down and then back up. There are some nice loops once you get to the bottom as well. The return climb is moderately sustained, but you do get a few nice breaks and is nice piece of trail and offers great views. For me it's typically just under an hour riding at a moderate pace / not killing it for time! Then again ... I'm only ~10 min. faster going hard.

If you were to climb back up the dirt road I think it's roughly ~2-3 miles to the junction with the IC trail from where Ringtail hits the dirt road. I think it's roughly 5 more miles from there back to the upper RIngtail trailhead assuming you climb up the IC Singletrack through the tree's etc ... (Counter Clockwise approach to IC).